This article explores how Mariana Rondón’s award-winning Venezuelan film Pelo malo (2013) reveals the inner workings of private relationships and language, representing what Bourdieu termed “symbolic violence”. Pelo malo challenges the exponential celebratory boom in Venezuelan state - supported filmmaking as the Chávez administration turned to cinema to narrate the nation. Despite the excitement and increase in state-sponsored filmmaking and the Chávez era’s nation-building discourse, Pelo malo exposes the limits of Chávez’ imagined community in both the film’s plot and its post-production trajectory.